Andy Kindler complains and everybody laughs

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Comedian Andy Kindler, best known for his ever-so acerbic guest correspondent duties on "The Late Show With David Letterman" and his recurring role on the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," is a by all means a modest man.

In the first minutes of a recent telephone interview to promote an appearance in San Francisco on Saturday, he emphatically declared, "I am the smartest comedian in the history of the world."

The statement was certainly in jest — considering his delusions of grandeur may well have been the after-effects of physical trauma. Earlier in the day he tripped over what he called "the world’s smallest pothole" and may have sprained his ankle.

Kindler, who has a reputation for his scathing attacks on fellow comedians, believes he’ll make a full recovery. "I will pull through," he says confidently. "My feet are elevated right now and I’m ambulatory. Ambulatory is my favorite word to use because it never gets a laugh."

The New York native, now displaced and complaining about it from California, will trade in his cutting stand-up shtick about the entertainment industry for an evening of political ranting and raving on Saturday as the headliner of Kung Pao Kosher Comedy’s fourth annual "George Bush Going Away Party: An Evening of Political Comedy." Aundre the Wonderwoman, Elender Wall and Bryant Kong, Tissa Hami and Lisa Geduldig also are on the bill.

"The thing that’s so amazing about where we are at right now is that I can’t remember anytime in my life when things were worse," he says. "But as angry as (people) get about George W. Bush, you have to get just as angry at the country for making the election even close."

Besides the requisite Bush-bashing, Kindler is likely to discuss another topic that’s been on his mind lately: right-wing radio.

"I’ve been obsessing a lot about the bottom-feeding quality of right-wing talk radio," he says. "The right-wing is appealing to a shrinking, shrinking demographic of angry, white people who blame their predicament in life on the fact that there are immigrants coming into the country; it’s pretty ludicrous."

As the president’s stay in office comes to a close, Kindler admits that he isn’t entirely sure what the future holds for comedians or the country, but he’s certainly interested to see how things shake out.

In the meantime, he will do his best to capitalize on all that’s, dreadful in world; it is, after all, his meal ticket.

"If everything was good maybe I wouldn’t have a career," he says. "I wouldn’t have anything to make fun of."